Dimples → a.i

→ Epilogue ←

"Ashton! Get your motherfûcking limp-noodle-ass out here!" Holly screams, her arms ladened with boxes. A scurrying of feet on floorboards is heard and Ashton finally comes into Holly's sight, running on socked feet out of their bedroom.

"Fuck, Tea, what?!" He shouts, looking around for the cause of Holly's yells, obviously thinking an intruder had decided to murder his girlfriend.

"I needed help with the mass of boxes that needed to be carried up, but you didn't have your phone on you, so I had to carry them up myself!" She said, dropping the pile of boxes onto their kitchen bench.

She let out a annoyed huff at Ashton and his forgetfulness before standing back and admiring the apartment she and Ashton had bought together with pride.

After much hesitation on Holly's behalf, Ashton and her bought an apartment together and were currently moving in. She and Ashton had been together for almost a three years now, but so much had happened in that short amount of time.

She eventually told him all about her family, how she had lost her parents and younger sister to a car crash which she had somehow miraculously survived.

She took him the grave site of her deceased family, and introduced him. He wasn't at all weirded out by it like she had imagined he would be, instead he sat down and chatted to their heads stones like they could actually respond. That was when she knew she loved him.

She also told him about how she isolated herself from everyone, moving away from the country town she grew up in to avoid the rest of her family and friends.
She told him how, for some reason, it had become all too easy to be alone and how she almost tricked herself into enjoying it. She told him about how she found comfort in books, travelling to the fiction land in which she could lose herself and forget her crushing loneliness.

Ashton and Holly also planned on travelling to Australia at the start of London's summer. He wanted to take her during the Australian summer over but Holly had been adamantly against it; if she could barely survive in the London summers, how was she supposed to enjoy a holiday in the extreme heat of Australia? So they compromised. They would travel while Australia was as cold as it could get.

Mali and Holly had also grown extremely close, despite Holly's first hesitance over her. She could now confidently say that Mali-Koa was her best friend. Other than Ashton of course.

Mali seemed to be thriving in life at them moment, relishing in the fact that her blog had grasped the attention of everyone, and that she had a very-in-love Ashton Irwin wrapped around her finger.

So life was kind of good at the moment.

Ashton and Holly stood in the kitchen unpacking boxes filled with their belongings, when the sudden yapping of a dog cut through their quiet conversation.

Looking up to the doorway to Ashton and her's bedroom, she sees a small black and white puppy run out of it. It was quite odd how before they had begun unpacking boxes in the kitchen, Ashton had taken a box Holly didn't remember packing, into there.

"Um, Dimples? Who's dog is this?" Holly asks apprehensively, leaning down and picking up the small puppy. The puppy squirmed in her arms, trying to reach up and lick her face. She looked down and giggled at it. Looking back to Ashton she sees him staring at her adoration on his face. " Ashton?" Holly asks again snapping him back to reality.

"Oh yeah, it's yours." He grinned.

" Ashton, I don't have a dog." Holly says confusedly. The puppy continued to squirm in her arms, so she gently placed it on the ground.

"Well, you do now." Ashton laughed, scratching the back of his neck.

"You bought me a fucking dog!" Holly screeches, and promptly clamping her hands over her mouth. Ashton 's mouth twitched into a smile and he nodded,

"Happy three year anniversary, Tea."

"Oh my fucking god, Dimples! You bought me a dog!" She shouts, squatting down to pet the small puppy that was currently trying to chew the laces on her favourite converse. Ashton rolls his eyes,

"I bought us a dog."

"Oh my god, oh my god! It's a fucking dog!" Holly shouted, scratching the puppy behind it's ears. It's tail wagged so fast that its entire back half started to move in rhythm to it. "It's so cute!"

"Wow, I be all cute and sweet for our anniversary and all you care about is the damn dog. I didn't even get a thank you kiss."

"Well she's cute!" Holly defended, looking up at a grinning Ashton.

"I'm cute too!" Ashton wailed childishly, stamping his foot. Holly rolled her eyes and looked back at the dog. It had rolled over so it's stomach was facing the ceiling, and it's tongue lolling out to side of its mouth.

Without Holly noticing, Ashton moved behind her, out of her line of sight.

"Yeah sure you are, Dimples." Holly scoffed. "What's her name?" She asked, scratching the puppy's pale stomach.

"Check the collar." Ashton said, his voice nervous behind her. Holly spins the collar she didn't notice before so the tag faces upwards. She leans down to read the small cursive font carved into the metal tag.

Holly let out a surprised gasp because what was inscribed into the tag was certainly not a dog's name.

Will you marry me?

Holly tried to keep her voice calm but the small shake of it ruined everything. "What kind of dog name is that?"

She stands up to face Ashton, but he was behind her, down on one knee a nervous expression on his face. Looking down to the box in his large hands she sees a small glittering ring.

"So, Tea, you up for it?" He asks nervously, playing with the black ring through his lip. Holly lets out a laugh that sounded too much like a sob. She nods and says a watery,

"Yeah, Dimples, I'll marry you."

Ashton 's face lit up, his eyes were glistening more than usual. Like he was holding back tears just as much as she was.

He slowly came to his feet and reached for Holly's left hand. Sliding the ring up her finger, he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it lightly. Pulling back, he sent her back the smile she loved most.

"I love you, Tea. " He whispered.

His dimple popped into his cheek, the very same one from the cafe that first day they met. Just as handsome as the day she first saw it. But it was always that fucking Dimple.

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